From ns.itep.ru!Radio-MSU.net!news.dfn.de!prise.nz.dlr.de!zib-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!news.mathworks.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.cais.net!news1.radix.net!news Sun Jun 16 10:54:12 1996 Path: ns.itep.ru!Radio-MSU.net!news.dfn.de!prise.nz.dlr.de!zib-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!news.mathworks.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.cais.net!news1.radix.net!news From: bgorrell@radix.net (Brian Gorrell) Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.beta Subject: A detailed review of the Merlin Beta (I'm using it now). Date: 15 Jun 1996 21:11:52 GMT Organization: RadixNet Internet Services Lines: 287 Distribution: world Message-ID: <4pv8uo$j7e@news1.radix.net> Reply-To: bgorrell@radix.net NNTP-Posting-Host: dialin37.annex4.radix.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: NeoLogic News for OS/2 [version: 4.5d UNREGISTERED 20 days remaining] I received the OS/2 Warp 4.0 (Merlin) beta on Friday. There is no NDA, so here is what I have to say: INSTALLATION ------------ Up to the first reboot, it is the same as Warp 3.0 (more or less). After the reboot, the graphics have the new 3D look to all the controls. I will detail this later. The first screen after the reboot is the hardware setup screen. This is the same as in Warp 3.0, but with a "Next" button at the bottom. Choosing Next brings up an additional hardware setup screen with options for PCMCIA, infra-red, docking, and some other laptop features. Choosing OK brings up the screen for selecting software options to install. Once again, this looks the same as in Warp 3.0. It has new check boxes for additional features. Some of these are: a. BonusPak (lets you select drive letter for each item seperately). b. OpenDoc. c. OpenDoc Multimedia. d. Voice Dictation and/or Navigation. e. Java Development (requires an HPFS partition). f. Dedicated DOS/Windows (only if setting up as Dual Boot). Choosing Install brings up a new screen with checkboxes to select Networking related features. These include: a. File and Print client. b. TCP/IP Services. c. Remote Access Client. c. Systems Management Client. d. NetWare Client. e. Mobile Office Services. Choosing Next brings up the network configuration page. This screen has a tree view on the left showing each of the items selected above. It also has Error Logging and Network Adapter and Protocol items. On the right, instructions tell you what to do. Items with a blue mark next to them are okay with the default configuration. Items with a Red mark next to them need to be configured. After configuring items, they get a green mark. Only a handful of items need to be configured. You are given helpful hints if you forget to configure anything. This part of the install was very easy to do. :) Choosing Install verifies that everything is okay before continuing. It gave me a warning that the recommended minimum for voice recognition is a 90Mhz Pentium and that my computer did not meet this minimum (I have a 66Mhz Pentium). I told it to install it anyway. It starts with the same progress indicator as in Warp 3.0. When it gets to the network part though, it switches to a very cool looking 3D progress indicator and tells you about Warp 4.0 in the top half of the dialog. It also has a rotating 3D animation on the right that runs throughout the rest of the install. It reboots again and then goes back to the network install progress indicator. At this point, it seems to run forever before the progress gets to 1%. It then jumps quickly to 50% where it stays for a while. It then says its finished without ever hitting 100%. This is confusing, but I suspect IBM will improve it in the final release. It reboots again and displays a summary of what installed successfully and what did not. For detailed logs of any item, you simply press enter on it. Nothing failed on my install. I like this feature. It displayed a registration wizard with a little elephant cartoon in the bottom left. It walked me through entering my registration information (including whether I wanted to receive mailings from IBM) then asked me to register by modem, phone, Internet (greyed out in this beta), mail, or fax. I choose modem, but there was no answer at the number it called. After closing the registration, I had 6 icons on my desktop: OS/2 System, Assistance Center, Connections, Programs, Webexplorer, and Shredder. They were lined up neatly down the left, with the exception of the shredder which was in the bottom right. The whole installation took about 45 minutes. WARPCENTER ---------- The warpcenter has an OS/2 Warp logo on the left. It acts kind of like the Win95 Start button. Pressing it opens a fly-out menu that automatically includes all icons and folders on your desktop (you don't have to configure it seperately like Win95). It continues to use fly-out even for drive objects. If you right click, it opens that folder for you. To the right of the Warp logo are icons for Window List, Lockup, Find, and Shutdown. The Window List icon uses a fly-out menu. One feature I really like is that if you right click on the Desktop item in this menu, it automatically hides all open windows. Next is a multi-purpose section. Clicking on it cycles through showing the free space on each drive and a CPU meter. Next is the Object Trays icon. To the right of this icon is the icons in the current tray. Clicking on the Object Trays icon shows a fly-out menu of all your trays. You can select one from this menu, or click on an empty part of the tray to cycle through them. I noticed I can not delete an item from the tray. I'm not sure if I am doing something wrong or if it is a bug. Next is icon with a fly-out menu for the Assistance Center. This is directly linked to the Assistance Center folder on the desktop. Finally, is a clock. Clicking on the clock switches it to the date. Clicking again switches to a timer. An icon lets you start and stop the timer. The WarpCenter Properties let you configure it to stay on top (Maximized windows stop at the edge of the WarpCenter), disappear untill mouse is moved to its area, move to top or bottom of screen, and use large or small icons. WARPGUIDES ---------- I really like this feature. This is IBMs answer to Microsoft Wizards. Warpguides are great for new and power users alike. They appear as yellow windows to the side or top of dialogs and programs that they can help with. They have thier own little controls for walking you through the parts of the dialog or function. It highlights the section of the dialog it is helping you with. However, you can ignore it if you want. The help level is configurable from Novice to Advanced. This will truly help the "Ease of Use" rating of OS/2. LOOK AND FEEL ------------- The 3D enhancements are very nice. All windows have rounded edges and titlebars like Win95. The entry fields also look more like Microsofts. Tree views use pushbuttons for the + and - controls. Items on menus that use a enabled/disabled mark use a 4 shade 3D diamond that is much better than anything I have seen before. Push buttons have a chiseled 3D effect. All 3D effects are "deeper". The Minimize, Maximize, Close, and Control icons on the title bar are very nice IMHO. Minimize is a 3D outline of a small box. Maximize is a larger box. Close is like Maximize, but with a line going diagonally through it. I like the fact that they don't use black. The scroll bar arrows are similar to Object Desktop's. The scrollbars themselves have a series of lines in the center. Perhaps they are supposed to look like the bumps put on volume nobs on portable stereos and the like. The WarpSans font is the new System font. It is used for titlebars and menus by default. A normal (non-bold) version is used for icons. It has a much crisper look than the other fonts do. There are fewer schemes, but they are of higher quality. Many include 256 color scenery backgrounds. There are Nature, Space, Ocean, and Warped schemes. All of these use the standard grey shading for controls and menus. You can select corresponding sound schemes from the Sound icon. The nature sound scheme is very nice. There are additional backgrounds that are not in any of the schemes. Perhaps they will be used in additional schemes in the final product. The icons look good. They are completely new and sit at an angle. I'm not sure that they use more than 16 colors though. I especially like the new OS/2 and DOS window icons. They really make it easy to differentiate the two at a glance. VOICE NAVIGATION AND DICTATION ------------------------------ Although I "only" have a P5-66 with 32MB of memory, I ignored the warning that a P5-90 is required. I must say, it works *very* well on my configuration. I think IBM should lower thier recommended minimum to a Pentium 60 with 24MB. You start the voice support by starting Voice Manager. It is located in the VoiceType folder, which is in the Programs folder. The first time you use it, it asks for your name. You then get a small window with controls to turn the mike off and on, set properties, etc. It also shows the status (listening, sleeping, etc.), the level of the input from the mike (yellow, green, red), and the last command if it was recognized (or a message if it was not). There is also a window showing what commands are recognized. It has a tab for the specific program that is open, and for all programs. The navigation works quite well for me. It gets it right 85% of the time. I can say "Jump to" and a program name for most programs. I can also say "Switch to" for any running program name. I can use pre-defined commands like "Desktop", "Deselect All", "Pop-up", "Shutdown", or I can define a single command to do that automatically. It seems to have covered all of the basics of navigation. For instance, I can say "Move Down Five" to move the cursor down five places. It also seems to recognize all pushbuttons and notebook tabs by name. Dictation also works quite well. However, it is only about 65% accurate for me. This should go up significantly once I train it. To start, I simply say "Begin Dictation". I then dictate and say "Stop Dictation". I can then edit using voice navigation commands (Home, End, Delete to End, Select Line, Select Word, Previous Word, etc.). I can also say "Correct Error" on any word to hear a recording of what I said and select the appropriate word from a popup menu (by number). It then remembers this so it gets it right next time. Navigation and Dictation can be improved by training (both the software and yourself). The utility to this is extremely easy to use. You simply say sentance after sentance. There are about 170 phrases for navigation and 200+ sentances for dictation. However, you only need to say about 50 of each before it tells you it has heard enough to continue. It then warns you it will take a couple of hours to process. I chose to suspend and come back later. It remembers where you left off if you want to stop at any point. My understanding is that accuracy will improve dramatically after training. By the way, you can set up as many users as you want, but any user can still use it without training. DEDICATED DOS/WINDOWS SESSIONS ------------------------------ First off, the requirements: - IDE hard drives only. - Dual Boot configuration (requires FAT file system). That seems to be all that is required. To set up a Dedicated session, you simply check a box on the notebook page where you normally select DOS, Windows, or OS/2 program. I don't know anything about it beyond this since I get an error when I actually try to use it. I will send more info once I get it working. MISCELLANEOUS ------------- INTERNET: The internet support is pretty much as you would expect. Same as in Warp 3.0, but URL icons can be double clicked on to start a WebExplorer session. Webexplorer is pretty much the same. It is version 1.2. One change is a right click on the web page brings up a menu of all the links on the page. DEVICE DRIVER CD: The OS/2 Device Driver Pak CD is useful. It can be accessed using the WebExplorer and is logically laid out. If connected to the internet, you can use its links to connect right to a manufacturers web or ftp site. HARDWARE MANAGER: The Hardware Manager is a utility that shows IRQs, DMA, I/O, etc of all devices. It seems to be just as thorough as Win95s device manager as far as recognizing my hardware. It even recognized my tape drive as a Sony SDT-5000. The utility is probably a WPS class as it acts like a detail view folder. Note that you can't really do anything except view the settings of the devices. MULTIMEDIA: The multimedia players have been redesigned to have a very proprietary look to them. They have marble like textures to the backgrounds and very 3D irregularly shaped pushbuttons. I don't know about MPEG support yet. FOLDER MENUS: All folders now have a menu bar (can be turned off) with Folder, Edit, View, Selected, and Help menus. ARRANGE OPTIONS: There are new Arrange options. These include Standard, From Top, From Left, From Right, From Bottom, Perimeter, Selected Horizontal, and Selected Vertical. There is also an optional snap to grid capability with definable icon spacing. Any icon can be locked in place so the Arrang does not affect it. This is not working 100% of the time right now. VIO WINDOWS: There is a right mouse button menu in VIO (DOS and OS/2 text mode) windows. It lets you set font size, mark, cut, copy, paste, etc. You can also define whether it should verify when closed by the title bar close button. OTHER: Many utilities look the same as before. These include Scheme Pallete, Color Pallettes, Dial Other Internet Providers, and others. I think thier look will be enhanced in the final release. STABILITY: I've only been using it for a couple of days, but I haven't had a single system crash. I have had a SYS error from VoiceType, but it was only once and did not affect the rest of the system. This is a very stable beta. There are however settings for "Asynchronous Focus Change", and "Focus Change Sensitivity" in the System notebook. The default is 2 seconds (represented as 20 tenths of a second). Here's the part I think may be important: I tried to run a video and after about 2 seconds got a message that the device was not responding. I had the option to retry or cancel. A cancel immediately closed the application. No problem. I think this is a problem with my video drivers or the beta, but the point is it did not crash the system. As I remember in Warp, a device timeout usually crashed the system. I also noticed the cursor stayed as an arrow when I tried to start the CD Player with a data CD in the drive. It was only a wait cursor when I moved it over the CD player. In Warp, it stays as a wait cursor over the whole system untill the CD player returns an error. It seems like IBM did a lot of work in the area of stability. SPEED: Faster than Warp 3.0. Don't know what else I can say about this yet. I will do some time tests when I get a chance. Hard drive speed seems faster. There are lots of other things I haven't yet explored (Java, OpenDoc, etc.), but I'm getting tired of writing and want to get back to playing with Merlin. I'll post smaller tidbits as they come up. P.S. The beta I have may not be the same as the one just announced at the Warp home page. I got mine by writing a letter to IBM when the OS/2 Information Center announced "Last Day to Participate" in regards to a private beta. The fact that I am a developer (although I've written nothing for the general public yet) probably helped. - Brian Gorrell bgorrell@radix.net